County Postpones Road Impact Fees

May 2, 1986|By Rick Tonyan of The Sentinel Staff

Massive opposition from Volusia County municipalities, real estate agents, developers and builders led the county council on Thursday to delay imposing impact fees that are supposed to pay for road work.

Although council members said they would wait until June 19 before making a final decision, they decided to charge whatever fees they may propose to anyone who applies for approval of development plans or for building permits today.

Developers who applied by April 4 for government approval of site plans are exempt from the fees if they are able to apply for a building permit by July 1. Anyone who had a completed building permit on Thursday also is exempt. The council set those deadlines last month and decided Thursday to stick by them. Members said anyone who starts the application process between today and June 19 would either have to pay the fees or halt the construction project.

For months, council members have said they would impose the fees on Thursday. Faced with about 200 protesters, members backed off that date.

The crowd dwindled to about half its original size by the time the council's seven-hour hearing ended. Those who remained applauded the unanimous vote for the delay.

Among the protesters was the Rev. Don Herchenroder, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Deltona, who described the fees as disguised taxes on churches. Under the current proposal, the fees would be charged to anyone building anything, including a church, that might generate traffic. County administrators said the fee for a church would be less than the $705 charged for a single-family home.

Most council members say they still intend to impose the fees to make builders and developers pay the costs of road work needed to serve their projects. Under the ordinance being considered, the fees would be charged both in unincorporated areas and within the boundaries of the county's 14 municipalities.

City officials complained that they have not had enough time to study the county's proposal. They also said they want to have some say over how the county would spend the estimated $6.8 million annually raised by the fees.

Council members said they will try to set up a workshop with the municipalities next week. But some members also questioned why the officials were complaining Thursday when copies of the ordinance were mailed to municipalities in January.

A resolution calling for the delay was signed by officials of municipalities ranging from Daytona Beach to Lake Helen. Ponce Inlet Mayor Clayton Perreault, president of the Volusia League of Municipalities, handed the resolution to the council.

The council decided to hold another public hearing June 5, before taking a final vote June 19. During those hearings, the complicated formula for imposing the fees may be altered, members said.

County administrators also proposed to double the discount offered to developers who use the formula rather than have the county work up projected traffic counts for an individual project. Instead of a 10 percent discount, administrators now are proposing 20 percent, which cut the fee for a residence from $882 to $705.

Some members said fees for commercial buildings may be cut. When the formula was unveiled several months ago, a developer of any commercial building would pay, with the discount, $4.11 per square foot.

Now, county administrators are proposing a sliding scale for commercial buildings that would save the developers of large, expensive shopping centers from paying huge sums. Developers of buildings less than 200,000 square feet would pay $3.57 per square foot. Those planning projects of more than 1.25 million square feet would pay $1.48 per square foot.

The formula for assessing the fees is based on nationwide statistics on how much traffic is generated by a project. Dick Kelton, county development and code administration director, said more traffic usually is generated by small stores than large shopping centers. Shoppers will drive from one small store to another while they will park and spend all day at a large shopping mall, Kelton said.

Members said they may change the formula to charge the commercial rate to no more than half of the total square footage in a business project. Council member Frank Bruno, who said he is trying to develop some commercial property he owns in Port Orange, said most businesses use about half of their space for storage, which would generate little traffic.

The formula would charge 39 cents per square foot to the developer of a warehouse. Bruno and several other council members said they may charge that rate to half of the square footage of a commercial project.